As one of the foremost luxury car brands in the world, BMW is a name synonymous with luxury and German engineering. BMW has become wildly popular in the last few years and with the growth of emerging markets, the demand for the cars have sky-rocketed in China and the Middle East, helping to make it the No. 1 selling luxury car in the world for 10 straight years.
However, in 2016 BMW lost its top position to German rival Mercedes-Benz for the first time in a decade. This might seem like a one-off coincidence but the actual strategy behind the rise of Mercedes has been in the works since 2011. That was the year when Mercedes was pushed back to third place as BMW and Audi took over as the first and second best-selling luxury car brands in the world. This prompted Mercedes to develop a grand strategy to get it back to the top of the market by 2020 – Mercedes was able to achieve the feat by 2016. Mercedes was also able to dethrone BMW in their biggest market, the United States, where it was the most desirable luxury cars for years and accounted for more than 30% of BMW’s global sales.
Mercedes was able to achieve these remarkable results by thoroughly researching the changing tastes of their current and potential customers from all over the world and developed new models accordingly, e.g as oil prices came down and the economy recovered, the demand for sedans declined in the US, with the trend moving towards SUVs.
Mercedes-Benz’s aggressive, customer-centric strategy has catapulted the company to the top position in just five years. If BMW wants to regain it’s lost market share and it’s top position, it need’s to develop a robust, long-term strategy of offering newer models which resonate better with the ever-changing preferences of its target customer.
The company can actually begin by revamping their most popular models and also creating back to basic M cars. A great example of this was the recent M2, a classic 365 hp monster which can go from 0-60 in just 4.1 seconds. It was one of the most well received BMW cars in decades. ‘stand out’.
BMW I believe has an opportunity to build on the success of the M2 by bringing in more variants. The demand in the Asian market for saloons will continue to rise and BMW need to be in a position to take advantage.
Currently, the M2 is only available in a 3-door models but a saloon (Gran Coupe in BMW language) or what about a legendary Shooting-Brake model which can provide versatility to an already popular car helping increase demand and improving sales by reaching out to a wider audience.
In essence the M2 shooting break can be a car in same mould albeit a little brother to the Ferrari Lusso, a high-performance long-distance luxury vehicle designed for everyday use.
There is a definite trend towards SUVs in the US market, but globally, people are looking for smaller and practical cars, which represent prestige and quality. BMW has a chance to build upon it’s proven M2 series and provide a new take on an established brand.
